Physicist Explains How a Stuntman Lept From a Helicopter Without a Parachute and Lived
- Posted on June 2, 2012 at 6:41am by
Liz Klimas
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(Image: YouTube screenshot)
Just last week, stuntman Gary Connery jumped from a helicopter wearing a wingsuit and sailed to the ground 2,400 feet below onto a runway of 18,600 cardboard boxes without deploying a parachute.
(Related: Stunning video: Man skydives onto 18,600 cardboard boxes without a parachute)
Now, physicist Rhett Allain from Southeastern Louisiana University is ready to tell us just how Connery did it without, well, killing himself.
First, if you missed the video of Connery’s descent, check out this version Allain found:
For Wired’s Dot Physics Allain uses these reported measurements for comparison purposes:
- That the 18,600 boxes were set up in a way that the runway was 12 feet tall, 350 feet long and 40 feet wide.
- That Connery’s descent to the boxes began a mile in the air.
Allain says Connery had two things going for him in this descent: 1) how the “wingsuit slows him down a bit as well as allows him to “pull up” a bit before landing so that he is moving more forward than downward” and 2) how the set-up of the boxes break Connery’s fall and lessened his change for injury.
Allain uses Tracker Video Analysis tool to help him explain how he arrives at certain calculations involving Connery’s stunt.
Based on Allain’s measurements, Connery’s speed was 16.8 mph going downward and 46.3 mph going forward. Compared to reports of his speed, Allain was on target, which with the video analysis having some perspective flaws Allain says is “crazy it is so close [because] these things never work out like that.” Allain then finds that Connery was traveling 33.7 mph horizontally when he was descending upon the boxes at the end with a vertical speed at this point of 19 mph.
Connery's horizontal and linear speed. (Image: Wired)
Connery's motion in the direction of the boxes (horizontally). (Image: Wired)
Connery's horizontal data. See the drop off at the end after his hits the boxes. (Image: Wired)
Allain takes this 19 mph of vertical speed one step further wondering how high someone would have to be to reach this speed to fall onto the boxes (as if they were just jumping off a platform onto them). His calculations show they would need to be 60 feet in the air, which he states shouldn’t “be so bad if you land in these boxes” because “people have jumped from much higher distances and survived just fine.”
Check out Allain’s full post on Wired for even more technical detail here.
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RedDawn2012
Posted on June 4, 2012 at 3:39amNumerous people have survived falls without a chute from as high as 10,000 feet, some without injury. Many of these occurred during WWII. I recall one where a man fell or jumped from a crashing bomber at night and he fell down a very steep slope covered in mud and was uninjured.
Report Post »davidwjohnson
Posted on June 4, 2012 at 12:47amI‘d probably reconsider jumping out of an airplane if at the last moment I wasn’t handed a parachute but 18,600 cardboard boxes.
Report Post »wbaranowski
Posted on June 3, 2012 at 4:40amThinking inside the box.
Report Post »Xcori8r
Posted on June 3, 2012 at 9:49am+1.. Outside the box but inside the envelope.
Report Post »txmike
Posted on June 3, 2012 at 2:45pmnow apply this to schrodinger’s cat.
Report Post »Xcori8r
Posted on June 4, 2012 at 2:10pmMust have been the Egyptian cat goddess Bast in the Land of the Pharoahs..
Report Post »http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UCQShAm5vo
birddog52
Posted on June 2, 2012 at 9:12pmBig deal — I saw Bat-Boy do this in the National Enquirer .
Report Post »FedUpWithLibs
Posted on June 2, 2012 at 9:43pmNo, no, the bat boy thing was a hoax.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on June 2, 2012 at 2:56pmI call it Luck… and I want a Physicist to physically demonstrate his theory!
Report Post »Xcori8r
Posted on June 3, 2012 at 9:52am“people have jumped from much higher distances and survived just fine.”
I’m not so sure about that “just fine” part..
I would not want to have to wash their scivvies.
Report Post »rockhead
Posted on June 2, 2012 at 1:54pm19 mph is about 30 feet per second (fps). Acceleration of gravity is 32 fps per second. So he would have to fall for one second to achieve that speed. Falling for one second, starting at o fps and ending at 32 fps, average speed is 16 fps for that first second, so that speed of fall would be reached jumping from about 16 feet.
“Allain takes this 19 mph of vertical speed one step further wondering how high someone would have to be to reach this speed to fall onto the boxes (as if they were just jumping off a platform onto them). His calculations show they would need to be 60 feet in the air”
Total mathematics/physics calculation fail.
Report Post »Latte Sipping Lefty
Posted on June 2, 2012 at 11:34pmYou are ignoring the effect of wind resistance. You can only assume that you will accelerate at 9.8 m/s² (32 ft/s²) when you are in a vacuum. The wingsuit will dramatically slow his descent. Even if the person were not wearing a wingsuit, there will still be a lot of wind resistance that will slow the descent. Anyone who has gotten past high school physics should know that.
Report Post »sillyfreshness
Posted on June 3, 2012 at 2:03amCall the Mythbusters and have them settle the issue.
Report Post »burnbabylon
Posted on June 2, 2012 at 1:40pmEveryone knows it’s not the fall that kills you. It’s the sudden stop at the bottom.
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on June 2, 2012 at 12:43pmI thought the goal was to knock down all the boxes like bowling. : )
Report Post »N37BU6
Posted on June 2, 2012 at 9:47amWe really needed a physicist to tell us this? Anyone who did is a moron.
And there’s too much focus on “no parachute”. Yes it took guts, but it’s not like he was unaided. He had a pile of boxes and a wingsuit.
This really didn’t need a revisit or an explanation.
Report Post »RamonPreston
Posted on June 2, 2012 at 10:17am“No parachute”->”No brains.” One gust of wind and he missed the boxes and it would have been a whole different story. For a bigger thrill try it without the wingsuit or boxes. That will be a story.
Report Post »(I have read that if an airplane is going to crash that you have a better chance of survival if you jump out of it while it is still in flight. I am not going to test this theory.)
FLORIDAKRACKER
Posted on June 2, 2012 at 11:09amHA HA HA yea right,yet remember,Obama has been allowing Kenyans and Haitians into the country to attend college thta have never seen a parachute! Yet they can pass an entrance exam with no prior schooling!
Think about it hahahaha!~
Report Post »jg2pto
Posted on June 2, 2012 at 2:10pmramon, all you have to do when a plane is about to crash is jump right before it hits the ground and you’ll be just fine. Just like in an elevator when it is falling.
Report Post »dimbulbz
Posted on June 2, 2012 at 9:38amI wont be willingly trying this anytime soon. Just because something can be done, doesn mean it should be. Yes, I am a coward.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on June 2, 2012 at 3:00pmWhat you are sensing… is not Cowardice… but Intelligence!
Report Post »RugDog
Posted on June 2, 2012 at 9:22amThe wing suit IS a parachute. Seriously. However. I do believe they day will come when these guys can land in water near the beach. And then someday, on land. Perhaps with a last second very small parachute to wing suit extended flaps of some kind. Or….land on a down hill slope with skis!
Report Post »FLORIDAKRACKER
Posted on June 2, 2012 at 11:10amIts been done already!
Report Post »80mesh
Posted on June 2, 2012 at 8:49amthat kinda blows the old saying …if ya wanna skydive twice you need a parachute
Report Post »randy
Posted on June 2, 2012 at 8:04amHe had wings and no brakes, hence the cardboard boxes. Not rocket science.
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on June 2, 2012 at 8:03amCool
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